


Neither Here Nor There

by OnyxHarmony



Series: The Chronicles of Deity (Grumpy-Zane Universe) [4]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angst, Blood, Coma, F/M, Hallucinations, Nightmares, mental health
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:13:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25643332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnyxHarmony/pseuds/OnyxHarmony
Summary: ((This is a brief fanfiction based on an event in a roleplay with Grumpy-Zane and his corrupted Cole AU on tumblr. ))A winter festival gone awry.  Deity finds herself on the threshold of life and death, in a coma after a near fatal attack by Cole's curse.
Relationships: Deity Fair/Cole Brookstone, Lou Brookstone/Rock Mom (mentioned)
Series: The Chronicles of Deity (Grumpy-Zane Universe) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1491785





	1. "I'm Sorry." "I Know."

This is it. 

Deity could  _ feel _ it, as she lay there in the snow after Cole’s cursed self had run away, once his consciousness had returned. 

One...two...one...two. 

Shallow breathing, blurry vision...a dull thudding in her ears. 

She is  **_dying_ ** . Deity passes out, losing consciousness for a brief lapse of time. It feels like she's floating. A gentle shake snaps her back to reality, her blurry eyes trying to focus on the person in front of her. 

Cole. 

It's Cole. 

It takes some effort to focus enough to speak, but when she does...it's raspy. 

Pained. 

"Cole, I don't think-" Deity began, pausing to take in a breath so she could speak again. 

Cole violently shakes his head. His voice cracks as he starts to protest-even though he knows she's right. "Don't you  _ ever  _ say that! I never wanna hear those words leave your mouth!" He's angry. At himself. He couldn't stop the curse from taking over, again. Carefully picking her up, he lays his head in her neck while he cries. He  **promised** . He told her he could keep it under control. But when hadn't he hurt her? 

Was this time any different?

He lifts his head from her neck to breathe and gazes at the body shaped spot between the heavy bloodstains in the snow. There was so much...the metallic scent made him sick to his stomach.

Deity lets a raspy wheeze out as she lay in his arms. "Cole..don't cry-." She frowns and slowly tries to pull away enough to get a good look at his face. "You look better when you smile. You know that." Her words are getting slower. 

Cole's chest feels tight. His bandana is tied over her wound-but it's soaked by now. 

There's no stopping this. 

"You...you can't leave me yet, Deity, come on-" He pleads, throat tight as he tries to keep himself together. Each swallow feels like he's trying to force his heart back into his chest. 

Deity slowly lays her head against his chest. She wants to listen to him one more time. 

To his heartbeat. 

To the way his voice seems to rumble in his chest when he talks.

Deity slowly forces her arms around Cole and squeezes him as much as she can. "Cole...I love you. I'll see you again one day, okay?" 

Cole tenses and slowly looks down at her as tears start spilling. "You promised-" He doesn't care that his tears are starting to soak her shirt. He had to be dreaming.

This  **_had_ ** to be a nightmare right? 

He'd wake up and she'd be asleep, curled up in his very first ninja suit. Cole shook, trying not to squeeze her too tightly. The bitter sting of the winter breeze in the night air, followed by a sickening waft of blood, reminded him that this was sadly reality. His gaze drifts back to her.

She's  _ smiling. _ It's a loving, fading smile...and her eyes are getting dim. 

Cole keeps his cheek against hers. "I'm sorry." 

She gently nudges his cheek. "I know." Deity shuts her eyes as her body begins to go limp in his arms.

Cole doesn't hear the rapid crunch of snow from Zane running up to them. He doesn't hear the yelling. He just sees her. 

The only person he ever let  _ this  _ close. 

Deity's hand slips from his face and she slumps forward into his chest. 

Cole doesn’t scream. He's got a protective grip on her, so hard that Zane has to shove him away from Deity. Muffled voices surround him. He hears Jay slowly focusing his element into a makeshift defibrillator. 

One shock. 

Two. 

Zane tells him to still and wait while he's using his gi top to wrap around her bleeding abdomen.

Another shock.

Cole doesn’t hear Zane, exasperated and calling for the Bounty. 

"We got a weak pulse." 


	2. Neither Here Nor There

Zane finally stabilizes Deity. 

She's hooked to various types of machinery, and she will live...but the hour put into stabilizing and stitching her back together was burned into his memory banks for life. 

He had learned hasty, makeshift-but effective surgeries when Deity first lost her arm. That seemed like so long ago to him. He's tired, but she's stable. Zane carefully sits down next to her, slowly brushing her hair away from her face. "Yet you still stay, despite the danger. I will never understand it. I don't think Cole will, either." 

She'd stayed with Cole through an arm and a leg, and an eye. 

Zane watches her rest. 

She'd promised to stay by his side, so he would do the same. 

Zane could stand it. 

She wouldn't be in the coma too long, right? 

Zane starts to tell her a story-of how he met Master Wu. He has to believe she can hear him, so he doesn't cry again. "I had been on my own for a full year, with no memories to speak of. All alone, testing my limits and clearly scaring the local villagers with my ability to hold my breath…”

  
  


Deity is floating painlessly. 

What is this place? 

It’s bright, and warm. It seemed safe. 

Had she died? 

No...wait.

Deity can see two portals. 

One is guarded by a barrier, but through it she can see Zane.

He’s asleep, laying next to her resting body, and Jay has come to tug a blanket over him. 

Deity can't go that way, so she turns to the other portal. 

Spirits playing carefully and eternally resting. 

Is this where she's supposed to go? She takes a few steps forward, only to be tugged back by a pair of strong arms. Deity slowly looks up at her captor.

It’s Cole's mother. 

Cole’s mother, a former elemental master, looks down at Deity with a soft gaze. "You're not supposed to be here yet, Little Bird. My son needs you." 

An apologetic look spreads onto Deity's face. 

Cole's mother shakes her head, turning Deity to look at the other women behind them. 

A blonde woman is standing next to the former master of lightning.

Deity can tell it's the master of lightning, because she’s talking at a rapid pace going on about how much she misses fighting bad guys, just like Jay. 

But the blonde with the blue eyes is familiar. 

Deity doesn't know her name,but her appearance is familiar, as though she’s seen her in a photograph. "I told Zane about you, he hopes you're proud. He's trying his best, you know." 

The blonde nods, giving Deity a smile. "I know, he's my son." Zane's mother is hugging her now.

While Libber is still lost in her own train of thought.

"Mad Lib! You have your head stuck higher in the clouds than I do! Get over here!" The former earth master shakes her head. "Does her son do this?" 

Deity sighs, laying her head back against Cole's mother. "Unfortunately. Especially if he's really passionate about something. Or he's terribly worried. I don't think I've ever seen Jay cry, though."

Libber shakes her head, adding herself to the hug. 

Zane's mother pauses, slowly looking at Deity. "How did my son become the master of ice?"

Deity looks confused. "I don't know. Zane is likely the only one who knows." 

Libber begins to incessantly chat about how Jay's powers were biological, until Cole's mother bopped her on the head, clearing her throat. 

"Back to the key issue. We can't let you pass on, but your body isn't stable enough to hold your spirit." She sighs, shaking her head. "So you must stay here, on the plane of existence, between the living and the dead." 

Libber ruffles her hair after Cole's mother is done speaking. "You know, Jay does a lot for you. I think you might be his favorite. Thanks for telling him about me. I wanted him to know where he comes from. You know, he talks to me when he's working on inventions. Mostly telling me about you. He tells me your prosthetics are the most interesting things he's ever built. As well as the most terrifying to install."

Deity nods, looking at Cole's mother. "Do you think he still loves me? Even after this?" 

Cole's mother slowly reaches down and strokes her cheek. "As much as the wolf loves the moon, Little Bird." 


	3. Here Without You, Songbird.

Six months. 

No, wait. 

Cole groggily lifts his head to squint at the calendar. 

One year. 

The others tell him she's in a coma, if he would only come out of his room and see. He doesn't know what to believe. He's eaten properly, at Zane's request, but he spends most of his time asleep. 

She's not hurting in his dreams. He's not corrupted and a ticking time bomb in his dreams. 

The ship is so silent without her voice melodically ringing through it. 

He misses her nudging him awake for Sunrise Exercise with tiny little peck kisses on his neck and sleepy whispers. 

_ Don't cry again, Cole.  _

_ She'd want you to smile.  _

He can’t do it. Cole feels the pain welling up his chest again.

Deity’s expression had been so peaceful in his arms the night of the Winter Festival. Had she died? 

Maybe it was time to see if what the others said was true. 

Shakily tugging a blanket around himself, Cole stands and slowly opens his door. He hesitates. Would his teammates lie to him, just to get him out of bed? 

No.

His teammates would never betray his trust. If it was true that Deity was alive, maybe he still had a shot at making this up to her. After all, he still loved her. 

Nothing could ever change that. 

Not even death. 

Tiredly trudging out of his room and shutting the door, Cole moves down the hall, keeping the lilac blanket around his body. He remembered this blanket. His mind drifts as he walks down to the medical bay. 

Lloyd had made Deity a ninja suit. Only, he'd made it a few sizes too big. 

Poor Deity had looked like a circus tent was swallowing her when she tried it on.

A brief chuckle leaves Cole as he remembers. 

It was the first happy feeling in a whole year. 

Deity offered to add extra fabric, enough to make it into a blanket big enough for her and Cole. 

Now he couldn't let go of it. 

Getting near the medical bay door, he hears a brief gasp behind him. Slowly turning around, Cole sees Jay, holding a mug of tea, but it's in Zane's cup. Cole looks confused, and Jay merely shakes his head. 

"You need to see for yourself, Cole." Jay opens the door to the medical bay, where Zane is half asleep, taking down Deity's vitals and watching her brain activity on the monitor. 

Turning his gaze down to the bed, Cole’s breath catches in his throat. 

They weren't lying.

Deity looks so peaceful. Like she's just... **_sleeping._ **

He knows she's not. The harsh beeping of the heart monitor reminds him that she is in fact, hovering just on the threshold of life and death. 

They could easily lose her, but...she'd been stable for a full year, right? 

Would she wake up soon? 

Cole could see when Zane lifted Deity's shirt to change the bandage that he had caused some pretty heavy damage. He visibly cringes, but forces himself to look. 

It must've been pretty deep, since it was scarred over. 

Wait. 

It was scarred over. 

Why was Zane still bandaging it? 

Cole watched Zane, who seemed to be running on autopilot. He gently shrugged the lilac blanket off and pulled Zane away from the scarred and healed wound, wrapping him in the soft fabric of the blanket in an attempt to calm him down. "Z, It's healed, can't you see that?"

Zane visibly shivers, leaning against his teammate. He's tired, but he knows that Deity needs someone to look out for her. "No, no we've got to get her bandaged before she bleeds out..." His voice audibly glitches from the sheer exhaustion running through his body. "B-Beforrrrre it gets inFECted." 

Cole gently shakes his head and rubs Zane's back, picking him up and setting him down in the chair next to the bed. "Zane, you need to rest. I..." His voice trails off when he sees Zane starting to cry, hanging his head. 

  
  


"I was...hallucinating again, wasn't I?" Zane's voice is quiet. Lack of sleep is causing his internal processors to glitch and he's reliving the night Deity was rushed up to the Bounty and was forcibly operated on so she wouldn't  _ die _ . Zane knows it's not Cole's fault, but his chest aches, remembering the dull gaze of Deity’s eyes as they finally got a pulse from Jay's gentle shocking.

She had looked like a shell of the vibrant, determined woman they all knew. 

Zane tightens the lilac blanket around himself. "She has brain activity, Cole. Her eyes follow the light when I check. So there's a very high chance that she'll be just fine with no brain damage."

Cole looks relieved, watching Deity laying in the bed. "Can she hear us, Z?" 

Zane pauses, as if trying to focus enough to answer. "I believe she can, even if it's only subconsciously."

"Because she has brain activity and she's responsive to external stimulation, just not touch, right?" Cole asks, shaking his head. He's not stupid. He knows some things about the human body, you kinda have to in case someone gets hurt in the midst of battle. 

"That is correct..." Zane's words are slow. He's exhausted. 

Cole watches his sleeping love, sighing. "Then she should know I'm sorry..." 

A silent voice speaks as the door opens again. “Get up, Frosty. My turn to guard the Princess.”

It's Kai. 

He's come to forcibly move Zane so he doesn’t involuntarily shut down from lack of rest. "Time for you to go to bed." Kai seems surprised to see Cole up and awake, patting his shoulder as he watches Jay carefully lead Zane out of the room. 

Cole gently brushes Deity's hair from her scarred eye. 

Kai settles down in the chair, watching Cole look at Deity. "She was pretty bad off, Rocky. I had to assist Zane in her surgery because Jay is squeamish as hell, and Lloyd..." He sighs. "Look, Lloyd already saw her when we brought her in and  _ fainted _ . He didn't need to see Zane frantically trying to stop bleeding and stitching up organs you lacerated." 

Cole flinches. 

Kai's tone wasn't harsh, but the mental image of Deity opened up on an operating table, because of **_him_ ** .

It hurts.

Kai sighs. "Don't worry. None of us hate you, Cole. I don't even think  _ she _ hates you." He chuckles. "Cole, she's stayed with you this long. I don't think she'd ever leave, unless you stopped loving her." 

Cole shakes his head. "I can't stop loving her. She's never done anything wrong, and...I have never had this kind of love before. She's stubborn, silent, and a little bit soft hearted, but she loves me unconditionally. Despite what the curse made me do to her."

  
  
  


Kai is quiet, watching Deity in the bed. "Deity gives unconditional love because fate dealt her a cruel hand before she ever met you. She gives what she lacked in her life." He watches Cole's mood slowly drop. He can tell that Cole is thinking of the worst possible outcome. Kai stands up and tugs Cole away from Deity, placing his hand on his shoulder. "I know you, Cole. You love her, and you don't want her to die. So try. Do anything to make sure this doesn't happen again. Make sure the moon lives a long life for the wolf, hm?" 

Cole hesitates. He remembers the story his mother told him when he was small. The moon went missing...so the wolf went to look for her. But the wolf was hesitant, because the moon was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and the wolf saw himself as a beast. So the wolf learned peace for the moon. "Kai..."

Kai shushes him. "You're not a killing machine. You're a guy who got cursed and fell in love with a wonderful woman we all care about." 

Cole glances at Deity, then back to Kai. "For her, and for my friends, I'd do anything." 


	4. Since You've Been Gone

One year, and four months. 

They had to transfer her to a hospital, before going on their trip to the dark island. Now they were back and Lloyd had defeated the Overlord...and purified his father, but there was a lingering emptiness in the ship, now that Deity was carefully being transported back into the medical bay. 

Cole had gone on a few trips since they got back, never telling where he'd gone, but he seemed a little less tense. Depressed still, because his love was still in a coma...but he seemed to have his corruption a little more tamed, Zane thought as he pushes Deity’s bed past Lloyd's father, who was visiting. 

Garmadon watches Zane transferring the woman and turns to Lloyd. "Is that my doing?" 

Lloyd shakes his head, watching his father. "Not directly, no. But what you've done to Cole while you were evil kinda...caused waves in the ocean, so to speak." He rubs the back of his neck. "She's been hurt, a lot. But so has Zane...and Cole is still corrupted." 

Garmadon looks visibly confused. "But the Mega Weapon-" 

Lloyd places a hand on his father's shoulder. "The pirates stayed too, Dad. Some things just don't go away. I think we've all accepted it at this point. Just...know we don't hate you." 

Garmadon nods, but he seems sorry for what he's done. 

After the two leave, Zane is alone with Deity, who is now reconnected to her machines. 

"Quite a lot has happened since we left you in the care of the doctors...I hope they knew not to be too loud around you." Zane rubs his face, sitting down in the chair again. He knows she can hear...even if it's subconsciously. "We missed you, Deity. Cole didn't sleep much. I had to make sure we  _ always _ had something of yours for him to hold onto. It made it much, much easier for him to fall asleep." He let out a sigh, carefully looking over his comatose sister. "The ship was far too quiet with you gone, Deity. I believe I am beginning to miss our late night talks and examinations of past events through my memory banks." He admits, running a hand through his hair. "I even miss waking up with those tiny braids you manage to sneak into my hair." 

Unknown to Zane, Jay is watching through the crack in the door. He definitely noticed Zane's behavioral changes since they all met Deity almost four years ago. 

Since Wu had vanished, it seemed like Zane had a gaping hole in his chest. 

Wu had been a father figure to Zane and the other boys, but most of all to Zane and Cole. 

Deity has filled the hole Wu left behind, and Jay knows that. 

After all, Zane  _ insisted  _ on getting detailed reports of Deity's condition while they were gone, despite the doctor telling him the wireless range wouldn't reach that far. Zane loved his little sister.

Jay keeps watching for a little while, seeing Zane start to cry again. 

Zane was  _ terrified _ . 

They all were. 

A year and four months, and she still wasn't awake. 

_ Was she venturing closer to the edge?  _

_ Was this it?  _

Jay's thoughts are overwhelming. 

Deity was as tough as a Grundle. No, no she wouldn't leave them yet. 

"We need you to come home, Deity...Please-" Zane wipes his eyes. "You are a part of the team, our family. I do not think I can take losing someone else." 

Wu had vanished, and now this. 

Deity still hadn't woken up, and he couldn't even begin to think of the heartbreak Cole would suffer if she passed away. 

Sure, they had the backup droid body for her, but it would be another year before it was fully operational. 

Lou visited her in the hospital while they'd been away, and told her stories about Cole's mother.

Zane had no quarrel with Lou visiting her, but now that they were back, he didn't want to leave her side. They made a promise to each other late one night, he remembered that. Zane had been awake for more than a day, thinking about his technical immortality. About how he would be left alone when his brothers succumbed to their human curse of being mortal. 

Deity had reassured Zane that even if Cole passed before her, and her physical body had been buried below the earth beside Cole and her brothers, she would transfer to her droid body and stay by his side as long as he liked. 

"But it cannot happen this soon! You are only twenty..." Zane seems to be pleading with her silently. He feels the gaping hole in his chest returning because of her absence. He goes silent when he hears Jay slowly open the door. 

Jay sighs, crossing his arms. "Zane, maybe you should take a break. I mean we just got back from fighting, you should sleep-" 

Zane bristles in slight anger, slowly lifting his head. "I will take better care of myself, but I have not seen her in three months. If you try and pry me from the room, I'll make you sure you cannot talk for four hours. How? I am not sure. But I can assure you, it will not be pleasant." 

Surely, Zane is only saying such a thing to get Jay to leave him be.

Jay silently leaves the room, shivering. 

Zane sighs and lays his head on Deity's bed. "You know I would never harm our brothers, right Deity?" He knows she won’t respond, but he feels a little more stable knowing she could likely hear him. "I just wanted some peace and quiet." He shakes his head, slowly closing his eyes. "I wonder where your mind is...the others have forbidden me from connecting myself to you, after Cole caught me hallucinating." Zane lifts his head to watch her, his face is eerily neutral. He's trying to keep himself calm, trying not to think of her dying. If she passes, another hole will be in his chest. In his family. He takes a shaky breath and adjusts her pillow, getting up to leave the room so he can get a mug of tea to ease his nerves. That's when he hears it. 

A lull in her heart rhythm. It slowed. 

Zane whips his head around, running back to her bed. 

Her rhythm and pulse are weak. Her vitals are fine other than this, what's going on? 

Zane’s voice begins to glitch from the stress. "Deity, don't y-you dare! You pr-promised!"

It’s enough to alert Jay, who was out in the hall. He rushes in, restraining Zane who grabs Deity. "Zane. It’s weak, but she's alive. All we can do is wait. You know that." 

Zane is shaking, gripping the side of the bed while Jay holds him steady. "But she was fine!" 

Jay sighs, gently rubbing Zane's back. "All we can do is wait and see."


	5. Who is He?

Deity feels strange. 

Something is wrong. 

Her body has been moved, and her loved one's parents appear to be drifting away from her.

The portal to the living has been fading for a while now, and the one to the right, the Departed realm seems tempting. 

Safe. 

She's forgetting things now. Why does her chest ache? Deity mindlessly begins walking toward the Departed Realm, when she hears crying. 

Pleading. 

Slowly turning around, Deity looks at the fading portal. 

_ You know that voice, Deity. _

_ Ice.  _

_ A good man with a breaking heart. _

_ Your brother.  _

It's dark in the room, and the door is locked as she peers into the portal to the living. 

Zane.

His name is Zane. 

Deity slowly sits in the middle of the portals, watching him. 

Zane is crying.

The portal is pulsing slowly. 

Like her heartbeat. She hears cries of ' _ Please don't leave..' _ and  _ 'What will ___ do?' _

Who? 

The missing name is like a color. 

A color that leaves a warm feeling in her chest. A safe feeling...but it hurts, too. Like the missing name has hurt her, but it loves her, too. 

Deity wants to go home.

The portal is still blocked off. 

The barrier around the portal burns when she touches it. 

Zane says the name again. _ '____ will break if you're gone!' _

Break.

Deity stares at the ground beneath her. 

Someone wearing black...a warm voice that vibrates in his chest when you hold him. 

The face is blurred when she tries to think about him. 

Who is this man? Who is ___? 

Why does he illicit terror, and why does she love him? 

Another memory. 

_ A dark hallway...it's late. She can hear her name softly being spoken by a shaky, growling voice. It's a warning. A plea. It wants her to run away, but she doesn't listen. The blurry faced beast lunges-only to be struck down. By ice. By Zane.  _

Another memory pops up. 

  
  
  


_ The beast is crying. Over her. Over what he's done. She's laid in the arms of a green clad teen, and the blonde is scared. She's been in this predicament before, but not nearly as bad as it is now. The beast is not acting his own free will. A deadly corruption was burned into his body.  _

Zane takes shaky breaths, trying to calm down before someone hears him crying. _ 'We are waiting for you, Deity. ____and I, and the others.'  _

The name is etched on her soul now. She's connected to it. Deity knows the voice in her memories. 

It tells her scars will never matter to him. Promising that she's loved. 

The voice is loving. 

The color associated with the voice resonates in her heart, and it feels good. 

The portal's pulsing is a little stronger, and she watches Zane lift his head after he's placed a black suit hood on her chest. 

He's smiling.  _ 'That's it...please...please hang on. I do not think ___'s heart can take it if you don't. I do not think mine can either...'  _

The portal stalls and pulses slowly again.

Zane is watching her with a broken expression. His voice is gentle. He's grabbing her hand like she might disappear. _ 'If you leave...who will sit with me at night?-'  _ His breath catches, and the tears are sliding down his face.  _ 'Deity, please. I cannot hold myself together in the privacy of my room or the medical bay for too much longer. I am only asking that you come home...that's all.'  _ Zane sighs. 

“Why does he stay?” Deity frowns. 

A soft voice answers her question. "He stays because he is his father's son.”

Deity looks up. 

It's Zane's mother, holding onto her. 

The portal has stabilized, pulsing with a soft, gentle rhythm. 

"Julien was always a kindhearted man. Even when I got sick...he put his work aside to sit with me."

Deity nods. "I never met him...did you guys talk about kids a lot?" 

She nods, a soft smile forming on her face. “Oh yes. We even set time aside to try and have them...but then I got sick. The kind of sick you can't really fix. I was always fond of the name Zane, though." 

Deity feels a hand on her other shoulder. "Libber?" 

Libber shushes her, holding onto her with Zane's mother. "You think I'd let Jay lose his only sister?" 

Time has passed in the portal. It's winter again.

Kai is sitting in the chair next to her bed, bundled in a blanket. 

A muffled voice echoes outside her line of sight. 

The air in the Inbetween smells like the earth after a heavy rain. 

Earth.

She feels so warm. Safe. A pair of strong arms envelops her in a hug with the other women. 

____'s Mom. 

Who was he? 

Her heart felt so full when she thought about ____. 

The voice is cracking. 

Something about having nightmares. 

The voice fades out.

The person has likely left the room. 

Now, Zane is shoving Kai out and sitting back down by her side. 

She watches her brother. 

"My son..." Zane's mother speaks, watching him. 

The barrier is slowly dissipating. 

It's cracking in spots. 

Can she go home? 

_ 'It will be two years next week...' _ Zane’s voice contains a silent ache. _ '____ has been sleeping a lot again. Your absence is breaking his heart and mine. Kai will not show it, and Jay hasn't spoken, so something is wrong.'  _

Deity watches Zane talk, sadness creeping into her. 

_ 'Do you remember when you first met him? You didn't understand why he hid from you. But he loved the way you seemed unafraid.’ _ Zane shakes his head.

Now she knows who Zane has been talking about. 

The memory of him is so warm. 

Deity can hear the way his voice echoes when they talk late at night.

It's a source of comfort. 

He sounds strong, but scared of letting her close. 

**C O L E** . 

His name is Cole, Deity you know that. 

You love him. 

He loves you, too.

Cole's mother makes Deity look at her. "I told you, little bird. He loves you much as the wolf loves the moon." 


End file.
